Redemption: Come What May
by Xenopsyche
Summary: Everyone is rather well acquainted with Shepard's story after Saren's attack on Eden Prime and his initiation as the First Human Spectre, but what events led to him being considered for that position? What shape did his life take to forge the hero we all know so well? My attempt at a prequel story for my Shepard.
1. What's the Worst that Could Happen?

**Disclaimer: **I do not own or make any claim to the Mass Effect universe or the characters contained in this story, all of which are owned by BioWare and Electronic Arts. This is simply my interpretation of some events within the game universe.

**[AN: Hello all, welcome to 'Come What May', my attempt at an origin story for my head-canon Shepard.**

**I had posted this fic previously, but it got practically no response (like, 200 views for a ten chapter fic after 3 months), largely because the writing was subpar and the formatting was shockingly terrible.**

**As such, I have done my best to rectify these issues in this re-write.**

**Thanks for taking the time to read, and I hope you enjoy it! /AN]**

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><p><strong>Systems Alliance Cruiser SSV <strong>**_Wellington_****(September 25, 2157, 0430 Hours, Ship Time):**

"What the hell just happened, Juarez?" Lieutenant Hannah Shepard called out over the droning alarm tones and surprised mutterings of the rest of the crew.

She'd been at the ops station in the CIC during the second shift when she felt the ship drop out of FTL. She knew that they still had another 7 hours until they reached their destination so if they had stopped then there must have been a reason. And the string of expletives coming from the bridge indicated that it was _not_ an intentional stop.

"I don't know lieutenant, the core just went offline; the techs must have broken something again," The pilot replied, the irritation in his voice clear.

"I'm on my way down to engineering, alert the Captain and fill him in on what's happened," she said before standing up and signalling for a junior officer to take over her position. Her carefully polished boots clicked sharply against the deck as she strode towards the elevator and selected the Engineering Deck.

As the XO of the _Wellington_ it was her job to fix any problems that cropped up while the Captain was off duty, and she had always believed in a 'lead from the front' methodology. Besides, she had previously trained as an engineer so she reasoned she may be of some use.

'What's the worst that could happen' she thought to herself.

She really should have known better.

* * *

><p>Chaos greeted her as she stepped off the elevator, however it was chaos of a uniquely military kind.<p>

Engineers rushed around the core, patching coolant conduits or attempting to solder loose wiring that had presumably been damaged by whatever had stalled the vessel. Everyone moved with a purpose and in the middle of it all stood Chief Engineer O'Hanlon, scanning through read-outs and performance logs from the core as they scrolled across his data pad's display, letting him coordinate the hive of activity around him.

Behind the main engineering room lay the _Wellington's_ massive Element Zero core, which, among other things, regulated the ship's mass, allowing it to maintain FTL flight. The core, usually humming from the vibrations that resulted from the passage of a current through it, was silent and still; a stark contrast to the activity surrounding it.

"What's going on O'Hanlon?" Shepard asked as she approached him, "why is the core offline?"

"I don't know Lt. We're trying to figure it out now," O'Hanlon replied, brows knotted in thought, "One minute, everything's normal then the current shuts off and the core stalls; I can't explain it. I've got engineers trying to re-establish the power flow so we can get the core back online and re-establish our kinetic barriers; a lone Alliance warship without shields out in the Traverse might be too tempting a target to pass up for some groups. Our escorts likely won't notice that we dropped out until they arrive at their destination," he stated grimly, knowing the XO would be just as aware of the dangers as he was.

"Agreed, do whatever you have to to get the barriers back up. Let me know if there's anything that I can help with," Shepard agreed, nodding at his rather astute tactical observation.

A ship with no kinetic barriers or FTL capabilities would be a sitting duck by most standards, and that was not something that Shepard wanted to be while on patrol in the Attican traverse.

The Traverse is a volatile region of space bordering the Terminus Systems. While it is technically under Council protection, that doesn't stop the occasional pirate raid or mercenary group from causing trouble. The Terminus Systems are comprised of the territories of races and groups that don't recognise the Citadel Council or its laws. As such, it is a haven for mercenary groups, the black market, the slave trade and piracy, among other criminal enterprises, and that makes it a very dangerous region of space to be around if you can't protect yourself; and being this close was cutting it a little fine.

Shepard was returning to the elevator when the core unexpectedly hummed to life. A couple of cheers went up from the engineers around the room and a look of relief spread across O'Hanlon's face. That look was quickly washed away though when the sound coming from the core started to change in frequency, sounding more like a keening wail than the usual deep hum.

Shepard and O'Hanlon locked eyes and their faces drained of colour. They both knew what that sound meant.

Core Overload.

Not good.

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><p>"I need all non-essential staff out of here <em>now<em>!" Shepard shouted, attempting to raise her voice above the sound of the Drive Core. "O'Hanlon, with me, we've got to try to stabilise the core! Pike, alert the captain, tell him that we have a possible Core Overload and that myself and O'Hanlon are attempting to fix it, but that I recommend he orders all non-essential crew to the life pods just in case."

"Y-Yes ma'am!" Came the reply after a brief double take at what she had just heard. Petty Officer Pike snapped off a quick salute to her XO then scurried towards the elevator.

As the crew in engineering made their way towards the exits in a rapid, if somewhat confused, fashion, O'Hanlon and Shepard went to work attempting to stabilise the core. The core itself began to pulsate, gaining mass then losing it in quick succession. The tidal stresses involved put immense strain on the core and micro fissures in its surface began to appear and from these fissures came aerosolised particles of Element Zero. These minute particles spread across the engine room, flung outwards by the shifting gravitational field around the core.

Klaxons began to blare throughout the ship as the Captain ordered all hands to the life-pods. In engineering, the calm voice of the ships VI also sounded, alerting Shepard and O'Hanlon that the room had been contaminated with Element Zero. O'Hanlon didn't seem to notice as he worked feverishly at a nearby console, attempting to re-direct the charge flowing into the core. Shepard, however, did notice and was struck by a sudden pang of fear, but then the alerts blared back into focus and she pushed her concerns away, focusing back on the more immediate threat.

"Hannah!" O'Hanlon hollered, struggling to make his voice heard above the sirens and the core, "I need you to eject the fuel lines that feed the reactor; we need to stop power from reaching the core!"

"That will leave us Dead in the Water!" She shouted back, and although she wasn't sure if he had actually heard her over the noise, he seemed to understand her objection.

"We don't have a choice, either we cut the power or the core overloads and destroys the ship. Being vulnerable beats being dead in my book."

"Okay, cutting fuel lines…now!"

The cacophony of noise coming from the core ceased almost immediately as lights and haptic interfaces across the ship fell dark. Within seconds emergency backup power had kicked in and the ship was bathed in a dull orange-red glow. Of course, with the loss of the Mass Effect Core, the ship also lost artificial gravity, because things weren't difficult enough as is. Shepard sighed heavily as she and O'Hanlon grabbed onto hand rungs sunk into the wall for exactly this kind of eventuality. Keying her radio to let the Captain know what had happened, she floated limply from the nearest hand rung and waited for the First-Responder team to arrive.

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><p><strong>Systems Alliance Cruiser SSV <strong>**_Wellington_****(September 27, 2157, 0945 Hours, Ship Time):**

Hannah raised her head as she heard footsteps in the med-bay, approaching her cubicle. She had been confined to a bed for a week due to Element Zero exposure. As such, she had missed the frantic two days in which the crew had worked feverishly to get the _Wellington_ up and running again, restoring power and the core to full functionality. Shepard had cursed her inability to help them. O'Hanlon had been allowed to leave three days prior, but she was on sick leave for an 'indefinite period of time until the Chief Medical Officer believes she can return to duty' as the official notice had put it.

Hers were rather special circumstances, after all.

"Good evening Hannah, how are you feeling today?" The Doctor stationed aboard the _Wellington _asked good naturedly. It was a routine that Shepard had grown quite used to in her time 'on leave', as it were.

"_I_ feel fine Doc, I just want to know if…" She trailed off, words catching in her mouth. If something was wrong then she might never forgive herself; she wasn't even sure how her husband would react.

"Well, I have good news for you; scans show absolutely no abnormality in the foetus and growth appears to be proceeding normally. Your child should be fine," he finished, with a sincere smile tugging at the edges of his lips.

A wave of relief hit Hannah, she felt her muscles relax and she exhaled deeply, releasing a subconsciously held breath. "Thank you doctor, that's great news. I was starting to get a little worried there," she said, though 'a little worried' may be in contention for the greatest understatement of the last decade.

"I believe you'll also be happy to hear that you may return to your duties whenever you feel fit, though I would strongly recommend some good meals and lots of rest for at least the next couple of days, to help you fully regain your strength. You were lucky to only get off with only minor burns and a mild case of radiation poisoning."

"Of course doctor, though you have tasted the food they serve on this ship, right?"

The doctor chuckled as he considered how accurate her assessment of the food was.

"Very well, nutritionally balanced meals then," he made to leave her cubicle to tend to his other patients, but turned towards her as he reached the curtain that separated her room from the med-bay. "Just one more thing, some studies have begun linking In-Utero exposure to Element Zero and the development of biotic abilities. We still don't know much about this phenomenon but it may be something to keep in mind," and with that thought and a quick nod, he left.

Hannah began to ready the few personal items she had in her cubicle in preparation for returning to normal duty. She was relieved that everything appeared to be normal with the child and that she was ready to go back to work, but a little voice in the back of her mind kept wondering if her child might develop biotic abilities, and if it did, then what would that mean for their family?

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><p><strong>[AN: And there you have it, I'd love to hear any question, comments, etc you have.<strong>

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter. /AN]**


	2. And so it Begins

**Disclaimer: **I do not own or make any claim to the Mass Effect universe or the characters contained in this story, all of which are owned by BioWare and Electronic Arts. This is simply my interpretation of some events within the game universe.

**[AN: Welcome to the next chapter. I apologise for the delay, but sometimes (a lot of the time) life can get in the way.**

**Anyway, here it is. I hope you enjoy! /AN]**

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><p><strong>Arcturus Station, Barton Medical Clinic (January 18, 2159, 1320 Hours, Station Time):<strong>

"Drake and Hannah Shepard, please continue down the corridor to Room C-8; Doctor Han has the test results for you to review," the synthesised voice of the clinic's VI came over the PA in the waiting room.

Humanity was still experimenting with Virtual Intelligence technology, but huge leaps and bounds were made after they began to integrate with the Citadel races. However, most of Arcturus station's VI's were already installed before contact was made with the galactic community two years ago and as such, the current suite of VI's was rather lacking and already slated for an overhaul, once the rest of the station was completed. It would take a couple more years before it was finished completely but it was already home to 8 000 permanent residents and the 'nexus of humanity' was a popular location with ship captains for shore leave; the shipyards allowing any ships, even the massive Dreadnoughts, to be refitted and repaired. As an added bonus, it was only one relay jump away from Earth.

Colonisation of other worlds had begun almost as soon as Humanity had found suitable candidates, Terra Nova, Demeter and Eden Prime most notably, but the vast majority of humans still live on Earth. The First Contact War with the Turians and the news footage of what was left of Shanxi had severely tempered people's enthusiasm for colonisation at first, but now that humanity had been accepted into the wider galactic community, people were starting to branch out again. Still, it would be a while before Colony life would be anywhere near a popular as living on Earth, so Arcturus' proximity was a definite bonus for many.

It certainly was for Drake, Hannah mused. While she didn't have much in the way of ties to Earth, despite a strong military tradition in her family, Drake had a large family that he loved to visit whenever possible and he made a point of it every time they had some leave time on Arcturus.

Service Chief Drake Matthew Shepard, 6ft tall, defined Eurasian features and a veteran of the First Contact War. He was also her husband of seven years.

They had first met at a recruitment day that the Systems Alliance had held at their College. Hannah was there because Military service was her family's favourite past-time, while Drake just thought it would be a good excuse to see something more than an overindustrialised Earth. They had gotten along surprisingly well, considering their seemingly clashing personalities; Drake was an optimist who couldn't hold a grudge if he tried, while she was far more measured and calculating, with an admittedly fiery temper when provoked. Still, they must have balanced each other out, because one thing led to another and they found themselves happily married four years later, both pursuing different paths within the Alliance

A gentle squeeze of her hand brought her attention back to the present and the sharp blue eyes of her husband. If she were honest with herself, all this reminiscing was really just her way of masking the overwhelming anxiety that was gnawing away at her insides, and it seemed as though Drake had worked it out to.

"Don't worry, whatever happens, we'll still be okay, John will still be okay," Drake whispered softly. "Come on, we shouldn't keep the good doctor waiting now, should we?" He questioned with a grin and stood up. Hand in hand they walked down the sterile, white corridor until they came to room C-8.

"Hannah, Drake, good to see you again, please come in and take a seat," Doctor Han greeted them with familiarity; they had been regulars for over a year now, after all.

After sliding into the well worn office chairs, the nervous couple waited for the news.

"The biopsy results came back and I am very happy to tell you that the growths in John's nervous system are definitely not cancerous and appear to be utterly benign."

Drake let out a sigh of relief, but Hannah knew something was still wrong.

"But…" Hannah prompted expectantly, gesturing for him to continue. While she was glad that the abnormalities weren't cancerous, she knew that there was more to the story; simply calling them to tell them the results would have sufficed, otherwise. She just wanted to know if there was anything wrong with John.

Doctor Han bowed his head slightly in acknowledgement and continued.

"…But the tests also confirmed that they are Eezo nodules, caused by your exposure to Element Zero during the incident on the _Wellington_ 16 months ago. Thankfully, your exposure was rather limited, so the nodules don't appear to be interfering with normal nerve functions or neurological activity; it does, however, mean that John may develop Biotic capabilities," he paused for a moment to allow the news to sink in.

"The Alliance is very interested in children with Biotic potential at the moment, it was only last year that we finally worked out that humans even had biotic potential. The higher ups believe that we need to study human biotics in order to effectively compete with other races like the Asari, or the Turians…" there was an unmistakable bitterness in the doctor's tone whenever he mentioned the vaguely avian species, an animosity bred from the loss of number of his relatives during the brief occupation of Shanxi by the Turian Hierarchy. "Still, I am bound by doctor-patient confidentiality, so it's up to you if you let the Alliance know. And even if you do, they would still have to get your consent to use him in… whatever it is they're doing."

The news hit Hannah like a Cruiser at FTL. It was the situation she had feared most; cancer and neural damage could be treated and, in many cases, cured. Biotics though… biotics were something wholly new and alien, and with the Alliance's sudden interest in human biotic potential, Hannah found herself terribly conflicted.

More than anything she wanted to stay with John and let him grow up and have a normal childhood, let him live a normal life and watch as he grew up and started his own family one day. But with the recent spate of fear mongering and vitriol towards biotics as a whole and biotically gifted individuals in specific, she wasn't sure any of that would ever happen. She also had no idea what would happen if the Alliance decided they needed to conduct research on him, but it was quite certain that he would receive the furthest thing possible from a normal childhood in that situation.

On the other hand, she was an officer of the Systems Alliance Military, if her superiors believed that they needed to study biotic potential in humans, then who was she to say no?

She glanced over at Drake and she could see the same turmoil in his eyes. As a career soldier in the Marines, he felt the conflict of family or duty as strongly as she did.

Dr Han continued speaking, pushing past the disconcerting quiet that had settled in the room.

"John has a very limited number of the nodules, and current research suggests that there is a link to the number of nodules and an individual's biotic capabilities. You wouldn't need to worry about him potentially harming anyone in a fit of rage or anything; all biotics need special amplifiers to effectively utilize the ability, even the Asari are quite weak without amplifiers, and their entire race is naturally biotic. Believe me, he will not be a danger to anyone and his biotic potential could very well be minimal; I just thought you should have all of the facts. I'll leave you two alone for awhile to discuss this, just ask the VI if you require assistance," he finished with an awkward nod as he slipped through the door that separated his office from the main hallway, leaving the Shepard's alone with their thoughts.

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><p>Hannah and Drake sat there in silence for the better part of five minutes, neither knowing precisely what to say. It was Drake that spoke first.<p>

"We both knew this was a possibility, if nothing else we should be thankful that it wasn't something worse-"

"Worse! What could be worse than this?!" Hannah shouted, her previously repressed emotions finally boiling over after weeks of tension.

She stood up and began to pace while continuing her emotional outpouring.

"John isn't even a year old and we already have to decide his fate! It's not fair! It's not fair for us and it's _definitely _not fair for him! And all because I tried to play the hero," she moaned as she slumped back into her chair, the tension she had felt leading up to this point, all of the stress and anxiety, flowing out as she began to cry quietly, struggling in vain to retain some semblance of dignity.

For his part, Drake simply watched and listened; relieved that she was finally releasing the burden she had been carrying. He got off his chair and kneeled down next to hers, placing a hand on her knee and rubbing soothing circles with his thumb.

"You know what's not fair? You, blaming yourself for this. You didn't _try_ to play the hero, you _were_ the hero. You helped save everyone aboard the _Wellington._ I know this isn't an easy decision, but I will stand by you, whatever choice you make. You're my wife, and I made a couple of promises to you that I plan on keeping," he stated gently, the conviction evident in his tone. "I'm also not stupid enough to go against my superior officers wishes; I have a career to think about," he whispered in her ear with a grin on his lips

His last comment got a derisive snort from Hannah.

"Please, you follow orders about as well as John walks at the moment."

After another brief period of silence, she looked over at him, the beautiful, compassionate man that was her husband, and a small, genuine smile graced her lips.

"Thank you, for standing by me. I just feel like this is my fault, that I put us in this position. It isn't exactly fair on you, and I –"

"Never think that, _ever_. This is _not_ your fault," Drake interrupted with a rarely seen forcefulness, his eyes begging her to understand. "If you had of stepped back and tried to save your own skin instead of saving the ship and going so far above your duty to help everyone else, then you wouldn't have been the woman I fell in love with. I choose to be at your side whatever happens, not because it would be easy, but because it would be worth it. Sure, this is a bad situation, but what would you be thinking now if you had of let someone else do the job you did? What if the core _had_ of overloaded and destroyed the ship? You made the right choice, but sometimes the right choice doesn't get the perfect happy ending."

"You're pretty eloquent when you want to be, for a jarhead," she grumbled, accepting his logic and banishing her previous thoughts, for the moment at least. Sighing, she sat up straight and wiped away the remaining tear tracks that had wound their way down across her cheeks.

"Okay, we don't tell the Alliance. John stays with us, he gets to live a normal life; no one ever needs to know that he could be a biotic. He can just have a normal life, with us. Is that alright, with you?"

His beaming smile answered for him.

They laughed and cried and hugged, fluctuating between the three states as they finally released all of their fears and concerns and anxiety, and began to look forward to a future together with their son.

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><p><strong>[AN: So there you are, my take on Shepard's father and an explanation for why he didn't end up in BAaT like Kaidan.<strong>

**As always, feedback is appreciated!**

**Thanks for taking the time to read! /AN]**


	3. Making a Name

**Disclaimer: **I do not own or make any claim to the Mass Effect universe or the characters contained in this story, all of which are owned by BioWare and Electronic Arts. This is simply my interpretation of some events within the game universe.

**[AN: ****Here's the next chapter. From this point on there will be a lot of time skips, so take note of the date that each of these things is occurring at to help minimise any confusion. /AN]**

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><p><strong>Arcturus Station, Systems Alliance Primary Education Facility Wing D (November 7, 2167, 1730 Hours, Station Time):<strong>

Like many things that the Systems Alliance had constructed in its early days, Arcturus Station's Public School was not gifted with an imaginative name.

As a result it was quickly renamed by the pupils who attended it.

The Systems Alliance Primary Education Facility (SAPEF) had become APE, which the kids quickly (and erroneously, but no-one had the heart to tell them) translated to Monkey and within six months the school was almost universally recognised as 'The Monkey House', which, considering the remarkably large (artificial) park and Jungle Gym present at its centre, wasn't entirely inaccurate.

Originally, Arcturus Station had been planned as a centralised Command/Control Station for the Alliance, housing the Parliament, shipyards and most of its military and intelligence services. As such, the need for a school hadn't been factored in. But with the sudden influx of men and women after First Contact and the Alliance's rather relaxed position on Marriage between members of the service, it found there was a significant demand for children's education. The result was one of the most modern schools in Citadel Space (albeit it with one of the most uninspiring official names in Citadel Space).

It was here that the first full generation of human 'Spacers', those who have lived their whole lives in space, grew up and went to school; one John Shepard included.

"Ah, Mr and Mrs Shepard, please come in and take a seat. I trust your most recent deployment went well, Hannah?" John's teacher asked as she ushered them inside the brightly coloured classroom, its walls adorned by the children's artistic attempts and streamers from a recent party.

"All quiet on the Western Front as usual, Sonia. How has the class been?" Hannah replied in good humour.

Sonia Hartmeyer had been John's teacher for the past four years and so the Shepard's had got to know her quite well. She was, in fact, a well known expert in cross-cultural studies and psychological development but had taken a teaching position because, as she said, she 'just loved children'.

"The class has been wonderful… mostly; you know how children can be sometimes. All of them are so excited for the holidays, as I'm sure you can see," she said as she gestured grandly towards the various pictures arrayed around the room, ranging in style from computer generated images to old-fashioned crayon drawings.

"It looks like you've got a couple of Picasso's in your class and maybe even a Van Gough or two," Drake quipped with a smirk gracing his lips as he carefully lowered his solid frame into the small chair.

"And while I regret to inform you that John is not among those, he certainly has skills in other areas," Sonia replied with her own smirk, not missing a beat. "He's been excelling in physical activities and he has a knack for logic problems and lateral thinking, always puzzling over some new riddle or optical illusion during free time. He does appear to be a bit isolated from his peers at times, but I think that has more to do with his rapid mental development, and he certainly isn't being bullied; his height sees to that."

'She's right,' Hannah thought to herself, 'for whatever reason John's nearly 10cm taller than the next kid; he basically towers over the rest of his class.'

"Eh, I was an early bloomer myself; I'd bet he'll balance out by High School," Drake commented with a shrug.

"There is one behavioural point I did want to bring to your attention, though; John doesn't react well when things are taken out of his control. If he has a plan set out and one of the other kids does something against that plan, he will either retreat from the others and withdraw into himself, or he will… 'erupt', for want of a better term. I think it's largely tied to his rather advanced mental development compared to his peers and as such it should resolve itself in time, but I would suggest you keep a close eye on it to make sure it doesn't develop into a fixation on control or a source of significant anxiety for him, particularly in the teenage years," Sonia explained, slipping into the familiar role of developmental advisor that had been her longest standing job before entering academia.

Both Hannah and Drake nodded carefully as the processed this information, thinking back to see if there had been situations they had seen that fit the description.

In hindsight, they could definitely see what Sonia was referring to.

"What about his grades?" Drake asked, curious as ever about his son's academic potential.

"The same as usual, nothing overly spectacular, but he does appear to be becoming more and more bored with what he's being taught. It's not affecting his work in any obvious way, but I suspect he could be doing much better if he really wanted to, not that it would actually impact anything at this age. But it does lead us on to my main point that I wanted to discuss with you; his IQ result."

Drake and Hannah exchanged a quick glance before turning their full attention back to Sonia. IQ tests were a compulsory part of the Systems Alliance's schooling program and they began in their fourth year and carried onto until their ninth, in an effort to plot any possible effects that the unique 'Spacer' lifestyle might have on the students. It was also used to shortlist possible candidates for officer positions in the Military once they had finished school.

"He scored very highly, 138 to be precise. It's just shy of Genius level and puts him in the top four percent of the human population. This level of intelligence would explain many of his behavioural quirks and it means he will have a lot of potential when he reaches the senior education system; in fact I'd almost guarantee that he'll be offered the chance to study on board a ship with you on your tours of duty. In the mean time, I would encourage the self-guided aspect of his learning; let him research things on the extranet and try different skills and hobbies until he finds something that really grabs his attention."

Drake smiled happily at the revelation while Hannah nodded in surprise as she processed her son's intellectual potential; it certainly explained his insatiable appetite for knowledge. She'd have to set up a (well filtered) Extranet account for him over the holidays.

"Well, now that the official stuff is out of the way I've got half an hour until my next appointment, so how about we catch up over coffee and you can ask me any more questions you might have once I have some caffeine in my system again?" Sonia asked happily, already knowing what the answer would be.

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><p><strong>Systems Alliance Carrier SSV <strong>**_Einstein_****(February 3, 2170, 0900 Hours, Ship Time):**

John was fascinated by the _Einstein_, he'd never been on such a huge ship! He'd seen Dreadnoughts and Carriers before when they docked at Arcturus, but he'd never been inside one and now he was going to live on one for the next 18 months!

His Mom was one of two XO's onboard, (a ship this massive required an enormous crew to run it, which required two Executive Officers plus the Commanding Officer to manage all of the shifts effectively) and his Dad would be joining the Marine platoon onboard in a couple of weeks; he couldn't wait to have his whole family around for a change.

At the moment, he and the dozen other kids whose families were also stationed on the kilometre long ship were being given a tour; being told where they could go and where they couldn't, a rundown of evacuation procedures, shift changes, how to get things from the mess halls and what was expected from their studies. Okay, so overall it wasn't the most fascinating tour, but John didn't care, he was going to be living on an active warship! A Carrier! For the next 18 months! It was so cool!

After the rather long tour, he returned to his mom's cabin to make sure all his stuff was ready for school tomorrow. All things considered, it wasn't really school like he remembered from Arcturus, there were way fewer kids and they didn't have a proper teacher, not like Miss Hartmeyer, but they still got to learn stuff and they even got to choose what they studied some times; the teacher had called it 'self-guided learning'.

Flicking on his datapad, John opened up the book they were going to be studying in history in a couple of weeks. Herodotus' _The Histories_ was a fascinating book, if a bit hard to understand at points, but once you stripped away the mysticism and less relevant tangents you had a very solid history of the Greco-Persian Wars; though, if he were honest, he kinda wished there was more detail about the military strategy used in the battles.

Settling into his small bed, he quickly engrossed himself with his reading.

A month later and John had mostly settled into life onboard a starship. He still missed the parks and nature domes that featured so strongly on Arcturus, but the extra freedom and the chance to be around his family so much more than made up for it. And the other kids were really cool too; they were just as interested in the ship as he was.

He was one of the youngest on board at the moment, being just shy of twelve, but all except for the oldest kids were taught by the same teacher, in the same room, so he got to know the eight other kids around his age quite well.

It was free time at the moment and he was in the middle of a four player Real Time Strategy game based on World War Two back on Earth during the mid 20th Century.

He had challenged three of his friends, Hayden, Natalie and Xu, to a 3v1 game. Hayden and Xu were both pretty good players in their own right but Natalie was the real challenge. She was practically a chess prodigy and she was unbeaten within their class and even amongst the adults who had challenged her. She could read her opponents brilliantly and she knew every possible move set, but that only added to the fact that she was a really good at thinking up strategies and executing them.

John had never really liked chess, it was too static for him. He could still play reasonably well, but he didn't like how limited his options were with moves or units. He much preferred the dynamic strategy games, like the one he was playing now. He loved the way he could manipulate the battlefield and his units own strengths and weaknesses compared to his opponent's. As a result, he had wiped Hayden out twenty minutes into the two hour game, by eliminating his Command/Control units with and APC assisted Commando strike that blitzed passed his sporadic defences, and he was just now polishing off the last of Xu's units and infrastructure after dissecting his attempt at a flanking manoeuvre and then driving a tank column up to his base.

All that he had to do now, was eliminate Natalie.

* * *

><p>Natalie had expected her team mates would fall, John was really good at this game after all, so she had built up her base defences heavily and focused on providing indirect fire-support for Hayden and Xu's assaults, while preparing her units for a counter attack when John made his move.<p>

Natalie had been planning on launching a strike against his base when he made his first major offensive, but since his first attack on Hayden's base had consisted of no more than two APC's filled with infantry, she didn't risk an attack when most of his units were still defending his base. When he moved his defenders up to support his tank column assault on Xu's position, she seized the chance and rushed her own tank formation up to his base, with a trio of fighter-bombers on station, ready to level any particularly dangerous defences he might have set up.

Imagine her surprise when her units swept into his base to find no resistance and little in the way of infrastructure.

* * *

><p>John smiled to himself as he watched Natalie send her units right into his carefully prepared trap. Little did she know, he had left recon units along the roads to his base and he was glad to see that she had acted exactly as he had expected. Even now she was spreading her units out through his empty base, looking for any sign of his location. The other thing she didn't know, was that his infantry units that had been defending the base hadn't left to support the tank column (he had other units for that), they had left to lure her in.<p>

Oh, and to clear the blast zone…

What none of his friends had anticipated was that John had abandoned his starting base and rigged it with explosives as he set up his actual base in a far more remote and defensible spot. He had arranged most of his units in a standard defensive pattern around the original base and that _really_ should have been a dead giveaway that he was up to something, John didn't really _do_ 'standard' with this sort of thing, but they never picked up on his strangely normal tactics.

* * *

><p>Natalie yelped in shock as she watched 90% of her combat units disappear in a grand sequence of explosions that ripped through John's false base, taking her units with them. She then stared in horror as an infantry force twice the size of her remaining battered and disoriented troops opened fire from concealed positions at her rear and put down the last of her soldiers. Her entire force that she had spent two hours building up and preparing for this assault, had just been eradicated in under ten seconds.<p>

Reflexively, she ordered her aircraft to carpet bomb the forest where John's ambush units had been, only to see all three of them intercepted by fighters and ground based mobile AA before they had gotten more than a third of the way across the map. With a sudden jolt she realised her entire base was largely undefended; her only consolation being that John's main force was still over by the remains of Xu's base and would take a while to finish mopping up there and reach her position.

She waited for ten minutes, requisitioning more units with what little time she had left, but the expected attack didn't come.

After fifteen minutes, she had some semblance of an offensive force again to compliment her now notable defences but still the attack hadn't come.

_"__What are you waiting for Johnny, scared a girl will beat you?"_ She goaded via the in-game chat, hoping to provoke some sort of action from him. Annoyingly, she didn't get the response she expected.

_"__Nope, I'm waiting…"_ She starred impatiently at the screen, waiting for the next part to come through and wondering exactly what he was up to, only to jump in fright as the crack of thunder roared through her headset and heavy rain sheeted down across the battlefield.

_"… __for that. Nice try, Nat."_

She gasped in realisation as his plan finally unfurled. With the rain and lightning obscuring her unit's targeting, her carefully positioned ranged fire would be useless; his units could practically walk in under the cover of the rain and be right on top of her defences. Sure enough, artillery shells began to rain down on her base, sending her units into chaos and blowing apart numerous machine gun positions and pill boxes. Infantry, supported by tank fire rapidly moved towards her defensive perimeter. Her remaining units put up a valiant fight, inflicting heavy casualties, but that small hope was lost when the deep thumping of plane rotors became audible over the booming thunder. Suddenly the sky above her base was filled with parachutes as paratroopers rained down inside her sprawling base's perimeter, precisely eliminating defensive position after defensive position and allowing the rest of his units to push forward unmolested.

The entire assault was over in less than five minutes.

_"__Good game Nat, your defences were way better than I expected, I wasn't sure I could actually get through them. See you in class tomorrow?"_

She was still too surprised to reply, he had planned everything around how he figured she would react and then let the variability of battlefield sweep him to victory. She hadn't even thought of checking the weather, but he had built his plan around a thunderstorm!

_"__Nat?"_

She had thought this would be a pretty easy game, three on one and all that. Plus he had never managed to beat her at chess.

_"__Hello? Nat, you okay?"_

'I'll have to ask him how he did it at some point, maybe tomorrow,' she thought to herself and she was about to ask exactly that when she saw the string of somewhat worried questions directed at her.

_"__Oh, yeah I'm fine, sorry, didn't see your messages. Sure, cya tomorrow."_

With that, she hastily logged out and climbed into bed, thinking about the game she had just played.

* * *

><p>Little did John know, it wasn't only Natalie who had been impressed by his game. He didn't know that every game played on the ship's servers was recorded by the Alliance so it could be monitored. These kids were, after all, among the most likely to go into the military when they grew up, so having an idea of their capabilities at this early age was a huge bonus. And as one analyst settled in to watch another replay of the game, they couldn't help but think that it might have payed off in a big way this time.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>[AN: And there you have it, Shep's starting to show some promise.<strong>

**Quick question, do you think I made him _too_ good? Or was he reasonably balanced and at least somewhat believable as an individual?**

**Thanks for reading, and if you have any feedback or questions I'd love to hear from you; as cliché as it is, writers (myself included) thrive off of feedback.**

**Oh, and if you haven't seen it and would be interested, I am also working on my version of the Suicide mission at the moment; it's entitled 'The Abyssal Maw' and can be found on my profile.**

**Thanks again. ****/AN]**


	4. Cruel Realities

**Disclaimer: **I do not own or make any claim to the Mass Effect universe or the characters contained in this story, all of which are owned by BioWare and Electronic Arts. This is simply my interpretation of some events within the game universe.

**[AN: This is the last time that there will be large time skips in the same chapter, roughly six years are covered in this chapter, so again, refer to the headers if you're a bit lost, hopefully they should help****. /AN]**

* * *

><p><strong>Systems Alliance Carrier SSV <strong>**_Einstein_****, in Orbit around Mindoir (June 16, 2170, 1320 Hours, Ship Time):**

Twelve hours ago, everything in John Shepard's routine life had been turned on its head.

Twelve hours ago, the _Einstein_ and her Battlegroup had been diverted to the human colony of Mindoir after a series of frantic distress signals had been broadcast from the small colony.

The _Einstein_ and her numerous escorts had arrived four hours later to find the colony being swarmed by a sizable force of Terminus System pirates; specifically, Batarian Slavers.

Diplomatic Relations with the Batarians had been tense at best when Humanity came onto the Galactic Scene and began to rapidly expand into the Skyllian Verge, a largely unexploited region of the Galactic Arm that happened to include both Earth and Khar'shan, the Batarian's homeworld. In protest the Batarian's closed their embassy on the Citadel and effectively shut themselves off from the rest of the Galaxy.

Ever since, the Batarian Hegemony had been waging a shadow war against the Alliance by sponsoring the illegal acquisition of sentient labour.

In other words, slavery.

Slavery was heavily frowned upon in Citadel Space, the Batarians being the only species to maintain the practice due to their rigid caste system that was entrenched into their social and cultural heritage and largely relied upon the servitude of the lower castes, thus giving them a loophole to continue the practice. But ever since they had cut ties with the Citadel races they had become a prominent and powerful player in the thriving slaving community within the Terminus Systems. It didn't take long for them to discover that humans made great slaves and that human colony's were easy targets.

Ironically enough, it was the same rapid expansion that had so enraged the Batarian Hegemony that made Alliance Colonies such soft targets. Because the rapid expansion also meant that the Alliance's forces were spread very thin and only the largest and most important human colonies had any sort of permanent garrison. The rest relied instead on semi-regular naval patrols to discourage pirate incursions, and this technique was becoming less and less effective as more colonies were founded closer and closer to the edge of Council Space where Terminus-based pirate groups often patrolled, looking for easy prey.

Mindoir was not the first and it certainly wouldn't be the last human colony to be hit by Batarian slavers, but history would later record it as being one of the worst.

When the Battlegroup arrived in-system, they immediately demanded the surrender of the Terminus forces and the release of their captives. This order was completely ignored by the pirates, in favour rabbiting to FTL or vainly attempting to buy their forces on the ground time by engaging the outnumbered but substantially better equipped Alliance force.

The Naval battle was quick and decisive; four out-dated Cruisers and a dozen equally antiquated Frigates plus an assortment of fighters and corvettes was simply no match for an organised, state-of-the-art Carrier Battlegroup, with two Heavy Cruisers, one Scout Cruiser and a four Frigate Wolfpack, not to mention the _Einstein _herself and her myriad fighters and interceptors.

Unfortunately, despite their naval superiority, there was little that could be done on the ground.

The _Einstein's_ full complement of marines, two platoons worth, were immediately dispatched to the colony once her fighters had taken control of the skies, but it was on the ground that the pirates numbers really played to their advantage. The marines encountered intense resistance from the largely Batarian force that was slowly withdrawing from the Colony and because the Slaver's had set up their base in the centre of the colony, it was too risky to use orbital strikes or even fighter-launched precision guided munitions, so it was left to the ground troops to secure the colony.

To save time and as revenge for their destroyed fleet, the pirates began to slaughter their captives in the dozens, sparing only those who showed real promise as slaves and were subsequently forcefully and traumatically implanted with neural control chips… without any type of anaesthetic… and using a pressure gun to ram it into their skulls.

Despite their best efforts, the Marines simply couldn't reach the colonists being massacred before their eyes and they incurred heavy casualties in their attempts before the slavers had loaded their 'cargo' onto their remaining shuttles and jumped to FTL as soon as they were able.

Of course, twelve year old John Shepard had no idea about any of this, all he knew was that there had been an attack on a human colony that they were going to go help and that class was cancelled for the foreseeable future.

* * *

><p>Another day later and the reality of the situation had fully sunk in.<p>

About sixty refugees, the only survivors from the Mindoir, were taken aboard the _Einstein_, seeing as it was the largest ship present and the only one equipped to take a large number of extra passengers.

That was sixty people from a colony of one and a half thousand; it didn't take an individual with John's IQ to work the horrific human cost of the raid.

John had never seen so much suffering before. Of course he had seen News coverage of natural disasters and the occasional report on a pirate raid; but to see it personally… it was unpleasant to say the least.

The kids had all been diverted to helping care for the refugees, mainly assisting in the med-bay or mess hall and some of the older ones were drafted in to help take care of the surviving kids, particularly the ones who had lost their parents.

He also saw the cost of the raid in his dad. He had been on the ground and whatever he had seen down there wasn't something he was willing to talk about. He put on a smile whenever John was around, but he knew it was fake; his eyes betrayed his inner distress and turmoil. His dad had always been so lively and spontaneous that seeing him like this was almost too much for the younger Shepard to handle.

One day, about a week after the raid, he got up the courage to ask what was wrong.

"You always were perceptive John," Drake chuckled ruefully and tousled his hair, but it all seemed a little forced.

Seeing that his son was still waiting for an answer to his question, he sighed and continued.

"It's not something that I can explain, even your Mother wouldn't quite understand; and frankly I hope neither of you ever do. I guess you could say it's a Marine thing."

"Then why did you become a Marine?" John asked curiously. Surely if something caused you so much pain, you'd stope doing it.

"Because someone has to. Someone has to be there to protect the ones that can't protect themselves. And I have the skills to be a Marine, a good Marine, so it's my duty to take up that position. You're still too young to be thinking about these sought of things though, just know that the Galaxy can be a really ugly and dangerous place at times but there are always people ready to stand against that."

John didn't know what to say, so he nodded his head vigorously in understanding before scurrying back to his room to mull over what his dad had told him.

* * *

><p><strong>Arcturus Station, Systems Alliance Marine Corps Memorial Ground (May 3, 2174, 0820 Hours, Station Time):<strong>

John could barely contain his emotional turmoil as he approached the sealed coffin with the Systems Alliance Flag draped precisely over it. It was next to three identical coffins, each bearing the names and remains of a fallen marine.

The one he stood in front of had 'Operations Chief Drake Shepard' carefully etched into a golden plaque.

His father.

It had been two days since they had received the visit that no military family ever wants to receive. Apparently, his Dad's squad had been investigating reports of a pirate base set up on a small moon in the Hercules System, and sure enough, they had found the base. It appeared to be deserted, and closer inspection revealed it was.

Except for the demolition charges. The _incendiary_ demolition charges.

The blast killed four marines instantly and seriously wounded two more.

Drake Shepard was among the dead.

John reached out to comfort his mum as she quietly approached the metallic cylinder that contained her husband's physical remains. She was wearing her full dress uniform, as befit her rank as Captain, but it was not as crisp as it would normally have been, the pins and medals slightly askew in their mounts; but the lack of decorum was easily overlooked, given the circumstances.

She had kept a careful, stoic facade in public over the last two days, doing her utmost not to let her subordinates see her grief and anger and pain. She even tried to hide it from John, though she wasn't very successful.

But now, as she stood before the coffin of her husband of twenty years, she couldn't keep her emotions bottled up any longer. She began to weep quietly next to the coffin, Drake's beloved Marine Corps beret clutched tightly in her hands.

John stood and held her, comforting his normally iron-willed mother as she poured out her grief. This continued for five, ten, fifteen minutes and still John stood silently, giving her the support she so desperately needed.

He remembered the words his Dad always spoke to him before he deployed on a new assignment:

_"__If anything happens to me John, I need to know you'll take care of your Mum for me. Can you promise me that?"_

Every time, he asked the same question and every time, John gave the same response; _"I promise."_

Only now did he fully appreciate what his father had meant. So he stood, and he waited.

His grieving would come later, but at the moment his Mum needed him, so he would be there for her.

And he'd be damned before he broke the last promise he ever made to his Dad.

* * *

><p><strong>Arcturus Station, Systems Alliance Marine Corp Head Office (April 11, 2176, 1415 Hours, Station Time):<strong>

John took a deep, calming breath, before he strode purposefully towards the Marine Recruitment Office.

It was his 18th birthday and his mother had taken leave in order to allow them to celebrate it on Arcturus Station and they'd spent much of the morning doing just that. First, they had gone to one of the many cafés on the station where John developed a true appreciation for what food should be (good food tastes even better when you've spent the last couple of years living off military cooking); he put it down to the use of fresh ingredients and a chef who actually knows how to cook.

After the breakfast they returned to the hotel room they were staying in to open the presents.

There were the usual presents from family members, mainly consisting of e-books, vids and Credits, and one of his older cousins had sent him a bottle of genuine Mexican tequila, much to his mother's chagrin.

There were also a number of presents from the crew of the _San Jose_, the cruiser that Hannah currently captained.

Most of the crew knew that he intended to join the Marines and their gifts reflected that; a pair of all-weather boots, some waterproof parkas, even an Advanced Combat and Small Unit Tactics handbook with the card simply saying that he 'may as well start reading it now'.

John smiled at the vote of confidence that the book represented.

That handbook was only distributed to Officers who were to chosen lead Special Forces teams, part of the elite N school of training, which also immediately narrowed down the list of people that it could have come from; he'd be sure to thank them in person soon enough.

His favourite gift from the crew, however, was one that all of the marines on board had chipped in for and it consisted of a group armour pouches that provided room for extra stim-packs, rations, water, ammo-blocks and medi-gel without compromising armour integrity or adding extra bulk, an 11 inch ceramic and titanium combat knife with a mono-molecular tungsten carbide blade and his name engraved into its hilt along with a correspondingly effective sheath and, finally, a standard issue Combat Helmet, designed to work with almost all of the Alliance's armours, with targeting upgrades in the HUD as well as a program that kept track of combat statistics, allowing the user to review them later. Inside the helmet all of the marines had signed their names and the inside of the jaw section was engraved with 'Reconnaissance Marines, 23rd Division'.

The Alliance was always happy for new recruits to bring their own equipment, so long as it was up to specifications, however they did not allow people to bring their own firearms and they were very strict with what armour and weapon modifications were allowed, mainly due to safety concerns; raw recruits running around with heavy rifles upgraded with scram-rails was a recipe for disaster. The crew were well aware of this and managed to provide John with a suite of gear that would not break any regulations but functioned better than the basic gear he would have otherwise been issued. Just as importantly, it wasn't anything flashy or expensive, just standard gear that had been given the 'personal touch' by his friends, experienced in what was required to be a marine.

Now he stood at the gateway to joining their ranks. He walked through the door and up to the Lieutenant manning the recruitment desk.

Shepard kept running over what he would say in his head; he did, after all, want to make a good first impression. He reached the desk and stood up as straight as his spine would allow.

"Sir, I would like to enlist for Officer Candidacy in the Systems Alliance Marine Corp."

The Lieutenant on the other side of the desk cocked his head to the side slightly as he appraised the surprisingly eager rookie in front of him.

"Relax boy, you're not a marine yet. You want to be an Officer, huh? Then let's see your papers," he waited expectantly while John quickly handed over the folder containing his Birth Certificate, Academic Records and Letters of Recommendation.

"Okay, so you are John Shepard, son of Operations Chief Drake Shepard, now deceased, and Lieutenant Commander Hannah Shepard, formerly Hannah Schofield, born on the 11th of April 2158?"

Shepard nodded in affirmation and waited as the data was inputted into the system and verified.

After logging the last of the information into the system, he scanned over the remaining documents.

After a few minutes (which felt much longer to John) he placed the documents down and looked back at John.

"Your academic results are impressive, and your physical results and aptitude scores are certainly high enough. They alone would likely get you admittance, but the fact that you've got two divisions of Marines to vouch for you as well? That's impressive; they must really see something in you," the Lieutenant said as he looked John up and down once more, then extended his hand.

"Welcome to the Marines, kid."

* * *

><p><strong>[AN: And there you have it, the start of Shepard's career as a marine; take a guess at what comes next...<strong>

**Thanks again for the feedback, it's good to see that this version is getting more interest than its predecessor. /AN]**


	5. Q: How do you separate Wheat from Chaff?

**Disclaimer: **I do not own or make any claim to the Mass Effect universe or the characters contained in this story, all of which are owned by BioWare and Electronic Arts. This is simply my interpretation of some events within the game universe.

* * *

><p><strong>Systems Alliance Heavy Frigate SSV <strong>**_Gallipoli_****, Brahe System (October 18, 2177, 0810 hours, Colony Time):**

"Pick up the pace up marines, we'll be entering Akuze's orbit in 5 minutes! Get your gear stowed and your weapons locked!" the Commander ordered, explaining as he went, "Alpha team will be taking the shuttle down once we're in orbit. The _Gallipoli_ will go groundside 15 minutes after that, then you move!"

Commander Mitchell Hynes surveyed the Hangar Deck, watching as the fifty marines under his command prepped for landing; variously checking and securing their weapons, loading their packs with rations, medi-gel and weapon mods or sealing their hard suits and checking systems and barrier functionality.

It was a varied group, as was common on these mission.

The Alliance couldn't afford to dedicate a Company's worth of trained marines and ships solely for responding to anomalous occurrences on their numerous colonies and instead through together teams from a variety of specialties when such events occurred. The Akuze mission was pretty standard in that respect; it was comprised mainly of the usual 'meat' of the Alliance ground forces, A, B and C code marines, General Infantry Riflemen, Arm's Masters and Reconnaissance respectively, with each squad lead by an early grade N code Officer, the Special Forces vocation within the Alliance, with support from an elite squad of F code Combat Engineers and a tank crew manning their Grizzly IFV.

Looking out at them, Hynes nodded approvingly as they moved purposefully, preparing for mission ahead.

They were ready to go.

* * *

><p>Hynes stepped into the shuttle to find Alpha team already there. They were ten of the most senior men and women in the platoon. Half of them held an N4 grade or higher and all had seen a lot of combat.<p>

As well as being it's Commanding Officer, Hynes was also the only N7 in the platoon. That wasn't much of a surprise given how rare N7's are; in fact, the presence of an N7 makes this hastily assembled platoon a true rarity in the Systems Alliance. N7's tend to work on their own or in small squads of their peers during combat missions, as they are generally entrusted with the most sensitive and high-risk missions.

So why then was an N7 brought in to command a quick response team that was ordered to investigate the sudden comm loss with the pioneer team on Akuze?

The reason was simple; this wasn't Hynes' first rapid-response landing.

Hynes had been involved in five previous missions of a similar nature throughout his career, the two most recent he had commanded and had acquired a reputation for efficiency and professionalism when it came to dealing with and commanding the often disparate groups brought together for these types of missions.

Only two of them had actually resulted in combat, his second and fifth, the others were a result of technical difficulties or a cosmological anomaly that interfered with the comm buoys. He hoped that this would just be another routine check-in but he knew better than to drop in unprepared; bored marines were better than dead marines any day.

Hynes' musings were interrupted by the squawk of his comm unit.

"Commander Hynes, we're in a stable orbit over the colony, you have a go," the voice of the _Gallipoli's _Captain came through Hynes' radio.

"Roger sir, depressurising the Hanger now," Hynes replied, as he activated the de-pressurising sequence.

Warning klaxons leapt into life, casting the entire hangar in harsh red as a twenty second count-down initiated, warning the other marines in the hangar to leave or seal up their suits.

A quick rap on the cockpit door let the pilot know they were ready to leave. The dull thud of the docking clamps releasing was the only sound audible within the shuttles troop bay, before the pilots directed power to the engines and put the shuttle in a stable hover within the hangar bay.

The Hangar bay doors finished opening, and the shuttle slipped out into the vacuum of space without sound.

* * *

><p>Shepard watched the shuttle leave and waited until the hangar was pressurised again, then he went back to weapons prep.<p>

Collapsing his newly reassembled M-7 Lancer, he placed it on the magnetic attachment points on his hard-suit. Then he took his Firestorm Shotgun from its place in his gear locker and began to inspect the weapon, checking the field generator, ammo block and his personal modifications. Satisfied, he collapsed it and attached it to the hard-point on his lower back.

It was one of the benefits of being an N2, you got to use more specialised, and expensive, weapons, as well as being allowed to add modifications of your choosing. Members of the Special Forces had a bit more freedom with their gear than other vocations, but that came at the price of far more being demanded of you. Just to be considered for the N vocation, you had to pass through Officer Candidacy _and_ show aptitude in a number of skills, ranging from advanced physics to software engineering. It only got harder with every grade increase from there.

He cut his inspection of his Kessler pistol, the Standard issue sidearm for all Alliance personnel, short when a preliminary report from Commander Hynes was broadcast to the Squad Leaders of the Platoon.

In short, the situation was not good. No sign of the colonists, heavy damage to the colony site and a completely dead radio frequency band never boded well.

With his weapons stowed, his suit sealed and its systems running nominally, Shepard joined the other five members of his squad who had also finished their preparations.

"Lieutenant," Corporal Toombs greeted as he turned and saluted Shepard as he approached. The rest of the squad did the same.

"At ease," Shepard replied with a quick salute. "I trust you're all ready to move?"

"Yes, sir!" They replied in perfect synchronisation.

Shepard could see the slight ticks they all had, nervous habits unique to the individual. Some re-checked their weapons, others fidgeted slightly, while others still scanned the room, even though the cargo bay was quite secure. For his part, Shepard tended to rub the back of his neck, though he had to mentally restrain himself now that he was in a position of command; no sense in making your squad doubt you.

'Good,' he thought to himself, 'they're not taking this lightly, they'll be ready if we have to enter a combat zone.' While the preliminary report didn't make any mention of hostiles, but it was never worth not preparing.

"Good to hear, the _Gallipoli_ will be landing in five; the Commander will be dispensing orders once we touchdown. I want all of you to be at the top of your game. The commander hasn't reported any hostiles but he also said that there is no sign of the pioneer team. We're here to secure the site for the rest of the force arriving in three days, and until they arrive we treat this as hostile territory."

The other five members of Delta squad nodded.

"Any questions you might have will have to wait until we're groundside," Shepard stated, pre-empting the couple of younger marines who would inevitably have questions. "All we know is that there is no sign of the Pioneer team, Alpha team hasn't reported any hostile contacts and the area is currently secure. Now make any last minute preparations you need, make sure you've been to the little soldier's room and get ready to disembark!"

A chorus of "Sir, yes Sir!" Greeted the lieutenant as his marines snapped into action.

* * *

><p><strong>Systems Alliance Heavy Frigate SSV <strong>**_Gallipoli_****, Akuze (October 18, 2177, 0830 hours, Colony Time):**

Hynes walked over to the Hanger Door once the _Gallipoli_ had landed, making sure to stand just far enough away so as not to be hit by the door as it lowered towards the planet. He was pleased to see that the marines still aboard the _Gallipoli_ were alert and ready to disembark, no trace of the flippant or disinterested attitudes that often plagued these missions… and got people killed.

"Marines, listen up! Bravo and Echo teams, link up with Alpha and secure the perimeter. Teams Charlie, Delta and Golf, prep the supplies and get them off the ship. Foxtrot, get a comm link to the buoys set up. Hotel, you've got the Grizzly," the Commander suppressed a grin as the squads went straight to the tasks they had been assigned.

After Bravo and Echo had left the Hangar bay and Hotel squad had driven the M29A 'Grizzly' IFV off the ship, Haynes moved back on board to update the Captain on their progress and report to the brass about the state of the colony. He nodded to the marines unloading their supplies, which mostly consisted of rations and communication equipment as well as mini-facturing equipment and a not-insignificant amount of omni-gel for repairing any damage to critical infrastructure such as water mains or power generators.

As the elevator began its ascent, his mind began to run through the extra logistical details he'd need to the ask the Captain about once he reached the CIC. He would need to ask the for use of the ships comm room until they could get comm gear working on the planet proper. Hynes was also going to suggest that the _Gallipoli_ wait in orbit until they were ready to leave, once all the supplies were unloaded and separate comms had been established. The elevator pinged and allowed him to step out into the CIC, where Hynes found the captain surveying status reports in the centre of the mass of consoles that acted as the nerve centre of the vessel.

"Captain," Hynes stood, saluting. His heavy armour and the veritable arsenal of weapons attached to his back made a lot of the bridge crew stare. The red stripe on his right arm and the N7 emblazoned on his chest only added to the effect. The Captain turned and shut down his omni-tool, returning Hynes' salute. "I assume that you're here to update me on your team's progress and the state of the Colony?"

"Yes sir," Hynes replied, before bringing up his own omni-tool and describing what Alpha team had found upon landing.

* * *

><p>Shepard surveyed the colony, or what was left of it, which wasn't much. Wide depression, troughs and mounds of dirt littered the colony, prefab buildings were strewn all over the place and some of the walls looked to have <em>acid<em> scarring across them. He had never seen anything like it. There was no evidence of a fire fight, no mass accelerator scoring, no bodies or blood stains, no explosive damage.

They had finished unloading supplies a few minutes ago, so his squad had formed a perimeter around their camp as they waited for new orders.

"Think the SIU might have trying out some new toys?" Toombs practically spat the name out as he surveyed the acid damage. The Special Intervention Unit was the infamous Batarian Special Forces group, renowned for their brutality. They were also the only members of the Batarian Hegemony allowed to leave Hegemony Space. There was a lot of speculation that the recent increase in surprisingly well armed and trained pirate attacks on human colonies and interests in the Verge were a result of covert funding and training by SIU units.

"I'm not sure, there's none of the typical evidence of a pirate raid, no evidence of a fire fight. We can leave the sleuthing to the experts when they arrive in a couple of days, until then we just need make sure that whoever attacked this colony doesn't come back."

* * *

><p>Hynes strode down the Bay Door, the red and white stripe on his armour gleaming in the harsh lights from the cargo bay. This time none of the marines saluted, they were On Mission and highlighting to an enemy who your commanding officer is tends to be considered poor form, even if his N7 decals would make him a priority target anyway.<p>

Noting the nearest Officer, Commander Hynes walked up to Shepard.

"Lieutenant, sitrep."

"Sir, all supplies unloaded and stored; Alpha, Bravo and Echo squads report Perimeter Secure and motion sensors active. Foxtrot is calibrating the comm array, it should be ready in ten minutes and Hotel is finishing a grid sweep looking for survivors, none found so far though," John rattled off as he recalled the status reports from the other squads.

"Good, good. There's a briefing at 0900 in the Operations Tent, don't be late," Hynes concluded in his traditionally blunt manner.

"Yes Sir," Shepard replied with a nod, before returning to his squad, while the Commander resumed walking, presumably to meet with the other Squad Leaders.

Over his squad's comm channel, Shepard relayed the update.

"Squad, hold position for now, we'll have our new assignments soon. Chief, you've got command while I'm at the briefing."

The usual chorus of 'Acknowledged' and 'Roger' came back through his helmet's speakers. Shepard began to head off towards the tent, eager to get his latest orders so he could give his men something to do or at least let them get some food and rest.

Entering the Ops tent Shepard found Lieutenant's Zhu and Treyn, leaders of Foxtrot and Echo respectively, already present. The state of the Colony had everyone on edge and until they were told otherwise this area was still technically hostile territory, so no one was being particularly talkative. Shepard nodded to them as he entered and took a seat, waiting for the remaining squad leaders and the Commander himself. The remainder filed in over the next five minutes until finally Hynes arrived, right on 0900.

Tapping a couple of keys on his omni-tool, Hynes brought a up a map of the colony with patrol routes marked on it and threw it onto the big screen whilst simultaneously sending a copy to all of the marines in the room.

"The Colony is secure for the moment, no signs of hostile activity or evidence of any survivors. Now we need to keep it secure until the main force arrives in 64 hours. Until then I want Bravo, Foxtrot and Hotel manning the Grizzly. One member of Hotel will be with the tank at all times while Bravo and Foxtrot can divide into two teams of three each. That gives us four teams of four. Each team will be on three hour rotations patrolling the outer perimeter; I'll leave you to work out the roster. Charlie, Delta, Echo and Golf will alternate on guard duty around the camp proper, four hours each; Charlie squad will be first, then Delta. Alpha squad will be on constant patrol around the camp perimeter for the duration of our stay. I want any squads not on active patrol to be combat ready and able to enter a fight within three minutes. Motion sensors are rigged at extreme range and drop ships are hard to miss so we should know if anything is approaching the camp. I'll be taking Alpha out in 30 minutes; Staff Lieutenant Jones has command of base operations if I am out of contact. Any questions?" He fired off, surveying the officers before him who all shook their heads.

"Good, go and get your squads ready then, we'll be here for a while yet."

* * *

><p><strong>[AN: And there the latest chapter, bet you can't guess how it'll end...<strong>

**Anyway, this was the beginning of my attempt to add some meat to the barest hint of a skeleton we have in regards to Akuze. We're told practically nothing about it other than 'Thresher Maws', so I've worked with what little we had and tried to make something out of it. I also wanted to make it vaguely resemble an actual operation, so there lot's of head-canon stuff about how I think stuff in the Alliance might work.**

**Feedback on that stuff in particular would be great.**

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter. /AN]**


	6. A: You Thresh it

****Disclaimer: ****I do not own or make any claim to the Mass Effect universe or the characters contained in this story, all of which are owned by BioWare and Electronic Arts. This is simply my interpretation of some events within the game universe.

* * *

><p><strong>Akuze, Command Post Alpha (October 18, 2177, 2245 hours, Colony Time):<strong>

Shepard glanced up from the data-pad he was reading to survey his squad. Gibson and Vladick were catching some shut-eye after the squad's guard posting, while Jenson, Toombs and Forbes played a variant of Blackjack popular among the marines known as 'Blackgum', where rather than betting money they played for the Energy Bars, Jell-O and Chocolate that came with ration packs and drawing a Red Jack resulted in an immediate bust.

A familiarly uncomfortable gnawing ate at his stomach, and Shepard decided that he should listen to it, much as he might regret it. So he got up out of the cot and strode over to the mess tent, which was really a 300L crate full of de-hydrated MRE's and a pair of general purpose microwave ovens.

While military weaponry, vehicles and armour had advanced light years since the discovery of Mass Effect technology and the cross-culture exchange with other Citadel species, military cooking had advanced little in 200 years; dehydrated meals were still the most space efficient means of feeding troops. Grimacing at the thought of eating dressed up nutrient paste again, Shepard sifted through the packs attempting to find a new meal type in the vain hope that it wouldn't taste like cardboard.

Settling on 'Tandoori Chicken and Fried Rice' he slit the seal on the packet with his combat knife and placed the water injection nozzle into the slit. Once enough water had been added he slipped the reconstituted packet inside the microwave and let it heat up.

As he waited, John looked around the rapidly assembled camp site amidst the deserted colony. Akuze was a quite mild planet with conditions quite close to Earth, though tidal events and weather tended to be more extreme due to the four moons that orbited the planet. The colony was set up on second northern continent in the sub-tropical zone and site had been placed in a natural clearing near a mountain chain that would have provided an excellent water supply from both rainfall and rivers while the clearing gave the colony a good line of sight in the event of a pirate attack.

'At least it should have' he thought to himself, grimacing as he thought of the loss of life here.

A piercing 'Beep!' shook him out of his thoughts as the machine announced that he could now claim his sachet of warm paste. Pouring the contents into a bowl, he grabbed a utensil pack and returned to his cot. As he had feared, it was a struggle to resist the urge to gag as he began to eat, the slimy texture and complete lack of flavour made the meal particularly unappetising; he decided that Tandoori Chicken was another 'No' meal.

Seeing his Lieutenant's discomfort, Jenson, the squad's most senior NCO and a long-term member of his squad, spoke up.

"Don't worry LT, you get used to it after the first hundred or so," he smirked, getting a laugh from around the table.

"Glad I'm on number 85 then," John shot back, joining in the laughter. "I'm starting to think they should include a straw with these utensil packs; I'm not sure how much good a knife and fork do when dealing with sludge."

"I think we can all agree on that Sir. I wonder how many signatures we'd need for a petition…" Forbes, a newer addition to the squad, replied, rubbing his stubbled chin thoughtfully as another round of laughter came from the table.

The laughter died quickly, however, as a slight but noticable shudder rumbled through the ground.

Shepard excused himself from the group as his comm squawked, listening with interest as Treyn's voice came through his earpiece.

"Echo Lead here, anyone else feel that tremor? I didn't think this area was tectonically active."

"Echo Lead, this is Alpha Lead. We felt it too and you're right, the original survey noted this region as tectonically stable, it was one of the reasons the site was choosen."

"Delta Lead here, we felt it in the camp proper as well," Shepard said, adding his own report.

There was a moment of silence before Hynes' voice came over the comms again.

"Grizzly One, did you feel anything?"

"Negative Alpha Lead, though the radar system glitched out a minute ago. The suspension systems probably would have absorbed any shaking."

"Roger Grizzly One, send me a copy of the radar charts for the last fifteen minutes and keep me apprised of any more 'glitches'."

"Roger, sending now."

As quiet once again descended, Shepard returned to his cot. Whatever the tremor was, it hadn't even woken Gibson and Vladick up from their slumber. Poking his 'meal' a couple of times, he decided that he wasn't so hungry after all, so he stowed his helmet and gloves and tried to catch some sleep, setting his omni-tool to wake him in four hours.

* * *

><p>"-ontact Engaged! Repeat, hostile contact engaged! This is Grizzly Actual requesting immediate assistance at grid location Golf Two, Bravo Three."<p>

Shepard shot awake at the sound of the radio in his ear and the cannon fire in the distance. Quickly sitting up he grabbed his helmet and secured its seals, before going to do the same with his gloves. Around him he could see the rest of his squad doing the same.

The Commander's voice once again came through his earpiece, relaying instructions.

"Acknowledged Grizzly Actual, Alpha is enroute to your position. Remaining squads, hold position and protect the camp and the _Gallipoli_. Grizzly Actual, can you give a description of the hostiles?"

"Only one hostile sir, it looks like an indigenous life form, very large, easily 30 metres tall. It just appeared out of the ground and attempted to attack the vehicle. I think it was the source of the tremors earlier. It retreated after we engaged it, though it didn't seem to be badly wounded. Recommend heavy weapons and armour piercing or explosive ammunition."

"Roger Grizzly Actual, fallback to the camp, Alpha will cover you. All squads, switch to high calibre weaponry and arm with explosive ordinance, marksmen to use armour piercing ammunition. Charlie squad, grab the Heavy Weapons and get them prepped. I want squads spread out and covering all angles of fire. _Gallipoli_, get airborne and in to orbit, we don't know this creature's capabilities yet. Any information you can find in the Council database would be appreciated as well," Hynes stated, his voice calm, methodical. It was an unexpected situation, but he wasn't going to let that faze him, Special Forces are trained to handle unexpected situations.

"Roger Alpha Actual, _Gallipoli _beginning prep for dust-off, we'll be airborne in three."

Acknowledgments from the other squad leaders came through to Hynes and Shepard added his own acknowledgment as he began to organise his squad.

"Alright everyone, weapons hot. Jenson, get that Tungsten ammo loaded and take up position on top of the prefab to the left. Vladick, Forbes, I want you to dig in near the garage and help the Grizzly team when they arrive. Gibson, Toombs and I will set up overlapping fields of fire across the courtyard. Remember to fire in short, controlled bursts, explosive ammo will quickly overheat your weapon if you fire full-auto," he snapped off orders, the training in his mind taking over, positioning his men to cover the entrance for the Grizzly and Alpha team.

Detaching his Lancer and activating the explosive ammunition modification, he took position behind a set of crates as Toombs and Gibson did the same five metres on either side of him. Tense seconds followed as all that could be heard was the growing thrum of the _Gallipoli's_ drive core as it powered up and the growl of the Grizzly's engine as it drew closer. The marines waited, prepared for any assault on their position.

And that was the biggest flaw in their plan.

With an explosion of dirt and a shrieking wail, the creature launched itself out of the ground and latched onto the hull of the_ Gallipoli_.

Shepard hadn't been prepared for the immense size of the creature. It was nearly the size of the _Gallipoli_ and more of it was still buried under the surface. It raised two scythe-like raptorial appendages and brought them down, crashing through the hull of the vessel like it was made of cardboard, the screech of rending metal carrying through the night air. The long, wormlike body rippled with muscle and purple chitinous plates as it struggled to drag the impaled prey back into its underground lair.

The marines in the camp were transfixed by the carnage in front of them, unsure of how to react. Screaming over the comm from the crew aboard the _Gallipoli_ spurred the marines into action, however.

As one they broke cover and opened fire on the behemoth attacking their fellow servicemen. The crack of high powered rifles and clatter of automatic weapons filled the air as small explosions blossomed across the creatures hide where the explosive rounds impacted. Despite the volume of rounds hitting the creature it barely flinched at the fusillade, continuing to haul the _Gallipoli_ off the landing pad. Shepard was also firing, using sharp burst of fire, trying to hit at what looked like they could be weak points on the creature, to little avail.

Without warning, an enormous explosion blasted out from the side of the beast, taking a chunk of the chitinous armour with it. The thing screamed and rapidly retreated into the earth, the cracked plating on its side smoking from the impact of the shell. Shepard looked around for the source and saw the Grizzly cresting the top of a nearby hill, its cannon readied and scanning for the creature, should it reappear.

Everything was quiet for a minute, no one dare moved, lest that somehow attract the creature. But soon the moment passed, and after quickly surveying the area, a number of marines jogged over to the battered frigate and began to pry open the emergency escape hatches to help the crew of the ship escape.

Alpha team was just beginning to crest the ridge with the Grizzly when another tremor rumbled through the ground.

It was the only warning as seconds later, the creature rose out of the ground again, three hundred metres away from the camp.

The turret on the Grizzly began to rotate towards the animal, turning to face the threat as soon as it had exploded out of the ground. The beast was faster however and it arched backwards and released a projectile spray from its mouth.

The stream of liquid impacted the Grizzly side on, splashing across the second tire and turret barrel. The areas that the blast had impacted immediately began to smoke as the acid pitted and scored the metal, rendering the turret barrel severely weakened and the tire inoperable. The Grizzly's crew were unaware of the barrel damage however and as soon as the gun was lined up, the order came to fire.

The force of the shell firing caused the barrel to shatter, failing under the force, while the shell spun away harmlessly. The sudden loss of the barrel meant the usual systems for absorbing the recoil of such a shot weren't in place, so the turret recoiled violently and only narrowly avoided breaking off the vehicle in its entirety.

Now that the Grizzly was no longer a threat, the creature then began to line up another attack on the damaged _Gallipoli_.

Seeing what was about to happen, Shepard's eyes widened in horrified realisation.

"Move! Get out of the way! Go! GO!" He screamed, hoping someone would realise what was about to happen. A couple seemed to take note of the danger and began to run, dragging their comrades with them.

Too late.

The acid spray impacted across the hull of the _Gallipoli _and five of the marines nearby, their screams audible even without comms, as the acid ate through their armour, then their flesh.

Shepard had no idea if any of them were still alive, but it was a question that would have to wait because things began to happen very quickly after that point.

Another explosion of dirt announced a _second_ creature, as it launched out of the ground and wrapped its tentacle-like mouthparts around the Grizzly. With no weaponry and no mobility, the crew inside were helpless as they entire vehicle was dragged underground.

Toombs and Gibson traded a shocked look between them. It was a look that said 'Game Over'. More than a little shaken, Toombs turned to their Lieutenant.

"Sir, what should we-"

The corporal was cut off as two more of the creatures rose from the ground and attacked the _Gallipoli_ once more; sinking their scythe-like limbs deep through the hull and leaching acid in an attempt to further weaken their prey. A couple of marines fired at the creatures in vain, their small-arms lacking the power to even annoy the creatures. Just as before the beasts attempted to drag the frigate into the ground, but this time they extended glowing blue 'tongues' that carved clean through the armoured hull, further weakening the ship's structural integrity.

That was evidently enough, however, as the _Gallipoli's_ super-structure was wracked by the sound of groaning, shearing metal as the entire ship was ripped apart, two equal parts being dragged down into the abyss by the retreating monsters.

And then it was over.

* * *

><p>Silence descended on the camp; no one knew what to say. In two minutes they had lost their armoured support, their evac route and a fifth of their number, and inflicted little more than flesh wounds on the creatures that had done it.<p>

In tactical terms, the creatures could do little better if they were planning to thoroughly annihilate their enemy. Either they were exceptionally intelligent or they were exceptionally aggressive and Shepard wasn't sure which was worse.

Hynes and the rest of Alpha team arrived during the period of silence that had overtaken the camp, and his presence soon rallied the scattered marines.

"Marines, I know what you're thinking right now, that we don't have a chance, that we're all dead men walking. But we _are_ still alive and we _can_ still fight. These things don't seem very interested in us, and with any luck it'll stay that way, but until the cavalry arrives I want information. Delta squad, link up with the Alliance. Give them a sit-rep and see if they have any information about these hostiles. Everyone else, I want an accounting of our casualties; see if there is anyone still alive out there that we can help. Keep yourselves spread out and if they come back, fall back to the camp, normal weapons don't have enough punch to damage them. Dismissed."

His authoritative, crisp tone helped to focus the marines, their fear replaced with action now that they had something to do.

Shepard took stock of Delta team and moved off towards the comm gear. He left Jenson and Toombs on look-out while Vladick, Gibson and Forbes helped the other marines with their tasks.

Interfacing with the comm satellite, he attempted to raise Alliance Command. He knew they wouldn't be getting any reinforcements for at least another 50 hours, when the main force arrived, so advising Command of the new developments and trying to get information were the priorities. After a couple of minutes he was finally routed through to the Intelligence Office.

"State your name, rank and verification code," ordered the synthesised voice of the VI that controlled comm traffic through the Alliance systems.

"Staff Lieutenant John Shepard, Verification Code: Alpha – Kilo – Zulu – Romeo – Romeo – Delta – 1"

"Identity verified. Transferring you to the Intelligence Officer for your mission."

Shepard waited for another half-a-minute until another voice finally came over his headset.

"Lieutenant, your platoon has another four hours until the next scheduled check-in, what's happening?"

"Sir, our force has been attacked by hostile unidentified indigenous life-forms and we have suffered heavy casualties. The _SSV Gallipoli_ has been destroyed and we are currently undertaking rescue efforts. In addition, our IFV has also been destroyed, along with at least seven marines."

There was an obvious pause before the reply as the Intel officer on the other end of the line tried to digest what he had just been told.

"You're saying that an indigenous life-form did this. Preliminary surveys of the colony site made no mention of anything capable of that much destruction. Can you give me a description? I'll pass it along to our Council Liaison, the other races might have come across something like this before."

"They appear to be a primarily subterranean species and they are huge, easily larger than an Alliance Frigate. The best way I could describe them would be worm-like, with purple coloured armour plating covering the back. They possess two very large raptorial appendages and a large blue tongue that can seemingly chew through metal. They also use a powerful acid as a projectile weapon."

"Okay Lieutenant, I'll pass this along and get back to you as soon as possible, stay near the comm system until you hear back from us."

"Roger, be advised however that we may need to vacate the area if they return, our weapons have been completely ineffective so far."

"Understood Lieutenant, we will be in contact soon."

* * *

><p>The fifteen minutes it had taken had felt like an eternity to John as he paced nervously around the satellite uplink, but Alliance Intel had come through for them.<p>

They now knew what they were facing, though it didn't paint a pretty picture.

Apparently the creatures were called Thresher Maws and were believed to have originated on Tuchanka, the Krogan Homeworld, where they are the Apex Predator.

That alone was enough to set alarm bells of in his head, everything that lived on Tuchanka was designed both to kill and not be killed, even the remaining plants make a Grizzly Bear look like a cute stuffed animal in comparison.

Thresher Maws apparently use their raptorial scythes as their main method of attack but also have extremely powerful digestive acids as well as the capacity to produce concentrated sonic pulses that can stun their victims at best or pulverise them at worst. The 'tongue' that had so easily ripped through the hull of the _Gallipoli_ was in fact a radula formed out of titanium and carbon crystals that was mainly used for burrowing but, like everything else about the creature, could easily be turned into a weapon.

To make matters worse, their defensive capabilities were just as potent as their offensive ones. They were resistant to all known types of radiation, and are actually known to utilise many forms as an energy source in a form of radiosynthesis. They possess very rapid cellular regeneration, even greater than that of a Krogan, and their armour plating is composed of a very thick and dense carbon weave superficially similar to Carbon Fibre, giving them significant protection from Mass Accelerator rounds.

All of the information provided gave Shepard little hope of beating them, a feeling that only increased when it was revealed that the standard tactics employed by the Turians if they encountered one was to call in heavy vehicle support, preferably aerial, or failing that, to avoid combat and retreat as rapidly as possible to an exfiltration point. Only vehicle mounted weapons or the most powerful of man portable weapons had proven to have any effect on the Maws in combat and it commonly ended with the Maw retreating only to reappear beneath its target.

The more he read, the more Shepard couldn't help but think that Intel was wrong; these things weren't Apex Predators, they were Forces of Nature.

After relaying the provided information to the Commander, Shepard went to check on his squad, leaving Hynes to formulate a plan.

As he ascended the ladder next to the door, Shepard could see the prone forms of the two marines he'd left assigned as look-outs, propped up on the cool metal of the prefab structure's roof.

"Lieutenant," Jenson noted, not taking his eyes from his scope as he scanned the horizon.

"Chief, Corporal," Shepard replied, nodding to Jenson and Toombs in turn. "How is it looking out there?"

"Nothing's moved since the last attack twenty minutes ago, and I mean nothing, no bugs, none of those skink like things. It's way too quiet."

Shepard nodded his head grimly, agreeing with his squad's lead sniper and scout. Jenson Jenson's sharp eyes had been proven time and again in both training and combat, so he was usually the squad's first warning against hostile incursions, but now the enemies they fought bypassed the surface entirely, so he was using his trained eye to watch for movement in the ground.

Toombs was acting as his spotter, and as well as providing a second set of eyes, the Corporal had also brought an AT-63 missile launcher.

The AT-63 was a single shot, disposable, self-guided High Explosive Anti Tank (HEAT) weapon, designed for use on light armoured vehicles, shuttles, gunships etc. Shepard had no idea if it would be enough to stop a thresher maw, but it was better than the alternative.

"Did you get any information from the Brass sir?" Toombs asked, glancing back at the Lieutenant.

"Yeah, but you're not going to like it. They're called Thresher Maws, originally from Tuchanka."

"You mean the Krogan planet?"

"Yeah."

"Crap."

"My thoughts exactly."

"So, how do we kill them?"

"I don't know, the Commander is working out a plan at the moment, expect a full briefing shortly, but from what I've heard, it will have to be one hell of a plan."

"Do you think they'll be back?"

"Not sure, the fact they didn't continue to attack after they destroyed the Grizzly and the _Gallipoli_ makes me think they were dealing with things they considered a threat, and it would appear that we're not on that list. Let's just hope it stays that way."

"What about the Colonists? No way they would have been more of a threat than us."

That caught Shepard by surprise. He hadn't considered the fate of the Pioneer Team. Their demise, presumably at the hands of the Thresher Maws, seemed to indicate another reason for their behaviour.

"Hmmm, that's a good point. I don't know, really, there are a lot of unknowns here…" he mused.

Noting the tense set of their bodies and noting his own flowing adrenaline, he decided he needed to try and lighten the sombre air.

"Anyway, we're just payed to shoot stuff, not work out the motivations for giant alien worms; we can leave that to the techs and the brass to figure out."

That got a couple of chuckles out of the marines; forced laughs, but better than the paralysing tension that had been there before.

Jenson spoke up shortly after, still keeping his eyes focused down the sights.

"Any information on these things' weak points, LT?"

"Not really, the whole body is armoured. Avoid the purple plating on the back; it's even tougher than the rest of it."

"Or you could just shoot wherever this baby hits it," Toombs stated proudly as he hefted the launcher, "I'm sure it will do enough damage to one of those things to at least make a dent."

"Let's just hope you don't have to use it, Corporal," Shepard commented, before turning to go check on the rescue operation from the _Gallipoli_.

* * *

><p>Shepard spent the next half an hour sifting through debris and searching the mangled carcass of the Heavy Frigate for survivors.<p>

So far there had been only corpses.

It would appear that the entire crew of thirty four had been killed in the attack; the sheer violence of the assault that had gutted the ship had also sparked various oil and electrical fires. Even though all star-ships were specifically designed to be fire retardant, there was only so much you could do when fire-systems are off and you're surrounded by vegetation and organic matter. A such, the ship's interior and what was left of the tangled remains was charred almost beyond recognition and many sections were still too hot to search properly, while fires still burned in others; the chances of anyone surviving were somewhere between slim to none.

Shepard mentally cursed himself as he looked over at the row of body bags filled with the burnt remains of the crew and the acid scarred bodies of the marines caught in the Maw's attack.

He should have been able to save them.

Forcing himself to look away he turned back to the wreckage. He still had a job to do, still had men to lead; he couldn't afford the luxury of self-pity.

Once more his omni-tool beeped and Commander Hynes' voice came across his earpiece. He looked up from his work and saw all the marines around him do the same, indicating that he was adressing everyone.

"Marines, assemble outside the Ops tent ASAP, we've got a lot of intel to go through."

Glancing back at the charred mass of metal that used to be a beautiful ship now splayed in front of him, he threw what used to be an I-Beam to the ground and turned to walk back to the camp, ensuring that the other marines followed his lead.

They knew as well as he did that there was nothing more they could do for souls, alive or dead, left in the wreckage.

When everyone had arrived, the marines were arrayed throughout the courtyard in the camp, and many of them now sported armour covered in soot and blood as they sat on crates of supplies or leaned against tent poles, as the Commander explained what they now knew about Thresher Maws.

Shepard could see the colour drain from the faces of some of them, and a couple decided it would be wise to sit down pre-emptively, but by and large they took the information that they were fighting an unknown number of gigantic, near invulnerable alien worms pretty well.

Then Hynes' began to describe their plan of action for the next 49 hours as he paced in front of the platoon.

"We don't have the firepower to fight these things, but so far they don't seem that interested in us. If we're lucky it will stay that way but I'm not foolish enough to bank on it. Foxtrot will jury rig the motion sensors into seismic sensors, which should give us some warning if they come back. I also want our marksmen out on the rooftops keeping an eye out. You've got the only small arms capable of hurting the Maws so make your shots count, look for gaps in the armour or the region around the mouth. I also want our heavy weapon stores to be distributed around the colony. If these things attack again we can't try a traditional defence, we need to spread out and hit them wherever they show up. Try to stay sparse, bunching up makes you vulnerable if they start spitting acid or come up inside the camp," he instructed, still pacing and enforcing every point with a hard stare or emphatic gesture.

Looking around at the arrayed marines again, he sighed and dropped the 'Commander' tone, addressing them as friends instead.

"I won't lie to you, we don't know how many there are, we don't know if we can really hurt them and we don't know what causes them to attack. So far they've ignored us and I pray that it continues because we've got two more days until reinforcements get here. If they do attack, then you have two choices, you can fight, or you can die, because right now there are not a lot of other options."

The rest of the marines nodded sombrely. They knew the score, but they would be damned if they were going to go down without a fight.

* * *

><p><strong>[AN: There you are, part two of three of Akuze. As you can tell, things seem pretty much under control...<strong>

**I've also dropped the rating down to T, because I don't think any of the combat is actually M worthy, even in the next chapter where the blood really starts to flow.**

**Anyway, any and all feedback is appreciated.**

**Thanks again! /AN]**


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